Cricket as a National Obsession is a Detriment to Other Sports

Hi,

In India today other sports are flourishing slowly. But there is a severe lack of funds for both private as well as national teams of all sports but cricket. This problem is also preceded by the very notion that every single Indian must have an interest or liking towards cricket. Its really sad to see parents place their children in cricket coaching camps without any thought as to whether the child likes the sport or not.

This has to change. All sports have to be given equal importance. Yes, its true that there have been individual stars in certain sports and have achieved on the basis of their accomplishments than hype as mentioned somewhere in this discussion page. But in a country of 1.28 billion people, producing a good set of players for every sport should be possible. If we can scout for cricket players so can we for other sports. This is also one of the major reasons as to why football players have never been scouted by teams in the English Premier League. If countries such as Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Korea can produce world class players that currently play in the EPL so can INDIA.

But its all a matter of change.

The question is are we willing to take that step towards a different and more prosperous india?

That waits to be seen.

Hi everyone,

I think that it is fair enough to think about the same progress in other sports as in cricket country is achieving. But it is wrong to blame only CRICKET as its hardwork and determination that has brought all success in this game. Now Indian cricket is at its peak and receiving great support from fans, we must not blame it rather appreciate it. Today India is no.1 in world in ODI.

So there must be something in this particular game that we have achieved so much. So we should look further to strengthen other game but also letting cricket go where it wants. Moreover India has produced some of the fine players in other sports and hopefully will keep doing it. IN A NUTSHELL CRICKET IS THE BEST PLAYED SPORT IN OUR COUNTRY AND WITHOUT SUPPRESSING IT SUPPORT IT BECAUSE IT WILL BOOST CONFIDENCE OF OUR COUNTRY IN FUTURE and we will progress in other games too.

Sport in any country reflects the culture, environment, people and economy as well.

Humans developed sports as part of interest, entertainment and physical education.

In India, Cricket introduced by British and now it is much far loved sport than the rest by distance. It rapidly became popular by adaptability, love, passion and area of interest by Indian citizens.

However other sports like Hockey, Football and other Gymnasium were shadowed behind it.

Hence Corporate and government bodies, media communications liquefied the emergence of people's interest much higher. So we can see lot of money going for cricket than other sports.

Now other sports lovers put finger on cricket for demolishing their game.

In democracy, no one can put regulation and force peoples to love any specific sport beyond their likelihood, which is pretty unnatural as well.

Best thing happen to any sport is that it played with natural interest and equally loved by others.

Cricket in India have made us more united as we take example of Sachin he is loved by all but the problem is that the board of other sports like hockey have not done hard work for making it popular among youngsters.

Hello everyone,

Cricket should be considered as our national game because we had really capitalize our strengths in cricket for the past 4 years by the efforts of playing many games like ranji trophy, ipl and clt20 where our youngsters and key batsmans used to play with foreigners and actually we play better cricket compared to them for the past 4 years.

Hi,

I would like to say something about this topic. First of all we should respect all the various sports in the existence and no sport govern the other sport. But if we search the history of cricket in India, it was spread here by British empire first of all and this game is in only those countries where they ruled. Eg- India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Srilanka, west indies, Australia, Newzeland and others. So this can be say that this game is symbol of our slavery. And in hockey India have won 8 golds in Olympic. We should improve our thinking in order to think about other games.

The inventors of cricket certainly didn't want it to be this way, but yes, Cricket indeed has posed a threat to the betterment and longevity of other sports. There are various reasons for this to have happened. Firstly, I think we lack the courage to pick up something new and work on it and as our history suggests, we have always been good followers and not good leaders.

If there is one term that we are immensely familiar with would certainly be "jumping on the bandwagon". Secondly, it is our tendency to infatuate over certain individuals to the point like its crazy. Hate to bring this up, but the entire extravaganza of Sachin's farewell summed it up about the state of sports in our country. It was like everything was served on the plate for him. Home ground, the weakest opposition possible, crazy media hype. True that he will always be one of the best batsmen ever but no individual is bigger than the sport.

The same year, there was not a single individual present to greet the victorious Women's archery team that returned home after beating giants South Korea in the finals. The cricketers are not at fault, nor is any other sports person. It is us. Ironically, most of cricket's ardent followers in the subcontinent are those who have never played even a 30 over match at the University or even at the School level.

Cricket is one the very few games which has gone through so many changes over time that it has become clear now that there is not much patriotism left in it. It is nothing but a commercial gimmick. But then again, this would not have had happened if we had not fallen prey to it.

Cricket has become the opium of Indian people, and players. Cricket officials have become astute peddlers, too many matches with too little rest will ruin our players in the coming years. They will suffer from "burnt out syndrome" which is quite evident already in the recent series against South Africa and New Zealand. Now even the Bollywood Bandas have entered the arena to double their cash. Days of techniques, and toils are gone, all the roads now lead to the techniques of making money. Biggest jokers in IPL cricket are the coaches. What they teach? How not to play cricket? Too much cricket, and too many crooks will soon kill the duck which is laying the golden eggs. RIP INDIAN CRICKET.

Hi,

In India when we talk about sports first thing which comes in our mind is cricket. Its definitely killing other sports, nobody is interested in sports other than cricket. You ask anyone (in India) in which sport he/she is interested in, the answer is Cricket. Other sports are also flourishing but not with that vigor that it needs. People involved in other sports can be counted on the fingers but people involved in Cricket are uncountable. There are some athletes who are barely able to make their ends meet because there is not enough recognition of that particular sport.

Cricket has been spread only in those countries which were earlier the colonies of the British. Rest of the countries have not even heard about this sport.

We have to admit the fact that people are gradually being attracted towards other sports and I think that day is not far when other sports will also be given the respect they deserve.

Hello all!

In my opinion, cricket cannot be declared as a national obsession. This year many of us were more excited about events in Brazil rather than India's tour of Bangladesh for cricket series. We were glued to our sofa sets enjoying the football world cup being televised though our team was not a part of it. This shows the love for the game and same goes for lawn tennis and other sports.